Cyanogen CEO Kirt McMaster, speaking at an event hosted by The Information in San Francisco, said he wants to give developers more freedom to integrate their apps with Android at a deeper level - that's something that Google puts limits on in the stock version.

Google has set up Android so that only its own apps can access the lower foundations of the OS's settings and features - that's why forks like Amazon's Fire OS exist - and McMaster wants to see the situation change.

Shells and sandboxes

"Android today and iOS are essentially shells for Google and Apple services. Everybody else exists in these sandboxes with no access to the lower levels of the [operating system] kernel," said the Cyanogen chief.

Creating a truly standalone version of Android is quite an undertaking, as Amazon as already found. Cyanogen will have to build its own app store, for example, but McMaster seems determined to give developers unfettered access to devices.

You can get CyanogenMod on devices from OnePlus and Oppo but it would seem its makers have even grander plans for the future - and given the clout it already has, Google will be keeping a close eye on developments.